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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

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yrsillar said:
The atmosphere at the meeting hall was good, Ling Qi observed as she strode back in, as if nothing at all had happened. The recess had begun, and several of the scholars were still debating under their breaths with those on their own sides, but while there was tension, it was not a bad one. Spirited debate rather than violent ones. She stopped briefly by Cai Reniang, to say a few brief words and promise further explanation. She passed Cao Chun, and shared pleasantries and as she clasped her hands and bowed, she transferred the frozen thought parasite from her storage ring to his.
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This whole thing is going really well and I'm happy about that.

yrsillar said:
"Not with so little time, and how vital it was to catch them by surprise. The person behind this is certainly a match for some of our Sovereigns."

Dzintara's expression twisted, looking horrified. Rostam blew out a heavy breath, and Jaromila merely frowned.
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This just shows how scary Sovereigns are to them.

yrsillar said:
"You have been honest with us, so I must be honest with you. It is not… impossible that there is some element in our nation who could seek to destroy this. We do not keep 'Sovereigns' as you do, but there are methods to direct and use their power," Jaromila said calmly, however…"
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Though they do have their own counters and equivalents to met them. We expected this but nice to have the confirmation.

yrsillar said:
"And I believe it is the correct course. Nothing will be gained by our investigations tripping over one another," Ling Qi said coolly.
"We would not be 'tripped' by barbarian efforts," Cao Chun grumbled. "But it is done. I will simply have to take this into account."
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He's annoyed but not mad which is the important thing, no favorability lose.

yrsillar said:
"Still Waters Deeping, Archivist of the Reviled," Ling Qi said quietly, letting qi enter them, echoing the feeling of slime and acrid stagnant water that made them more than mere syllables.
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Names have power and that name has some really negative connotations.

yrsillar said:
"It is an aping of them, at most. The Hui are dead, but this does not mean their knowledge died with them entirely. It is possible some methods were preserved or… lost."

He glanced down pointedly. Ling Qi's eyes widened. Of course with all of the Emerald Seas out for their blood, the old ducal clan had scattered and gone to ground to be hunted down in the proceeding decades. If some had simply kept running…

"I am surprised you would admit that barbarians might co-opt imperial methods."

"The beasts underground are truly… consummate scavengers. The Ministry has begun to sift through their methods, and finds there is significant danger of technique theft by their foul arts," Jin Tae said lightly. "As expected of ghoulish corpse eaters."
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I didn't think about it but we found the Hui Corpse Immortal really far out and there are still two Hui from that particular group running loose. They or their descendants could've interrogated into the Confederacy or the Theocracy. Also nice to have confirmation that these are 100% Hui derived methods, it was suspected but the confirmation is still important to have.

yrsillar said:
"The Meng, or rather, some rogue within them," Cao Chun said bluntly. "I am confident that it is not backed by the clan overall, but there are some markers which make me wary, and if there were manywhere in this province where some recollection of Hui arts were preserved, it would be the western marshes. Those names you spoke point in that direction."

Ling Qi frowned deeply, crossing her arms. She didn't wish to believe that. She had been making strong inroads with the Meng, and yet…

And yet she knew she was divisive, that the Meng clan was strongly divided internally, and where she was friend to Meng Diu and those who followed her, that made her the enemy of others.

Yet would they really take such a risk, just to spite her and her project, when it could potentially draw the eye of the Duchess. It sounded insane in her mind.

Yet, Shu Yue's words on grudges drifted in her mind.
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The Weilu Reactionaries are at -4 so that's important to note as well.

Oliver_Twister said:
I absolutely love this. Everyone is shocked and want to know how we plucked such info out. Foundation Moon arts + Grinning Moon + [Communication] + LQ cat shenanigans and intuition is a deadly combo.

Keep note that these are two ducals (1 is part of the other 3, the other is super rich) and the Senior MoI Secretary of the South Emerald Seas who are surprised and curious here. Thief of Names is GOOD.
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Ling Qi is extremely talented and the fact she's that good at such an obscure skillset at her level is weird as hell. The sheer WTF how did she do that was great.

ChronOblivion said:
Excellent results. I hadn't realized that the MoI literally don't know about Shu Yue, not sure exactly how small the lost of people who were told is, but it's pretty damn small. The Crows know and presumably have told White Sky people, but not the federal agents. So Qi gets to look even more ridiculous as she "accomplishes" something utterly beyond her cultivation.

And yeah, ES Nobles because they are a primary target for favorability and lagging behind White Sky, and Polar Theocracy so we can take advantage of the roll bonuses.
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Shue Yue is scary good at stealth and I'm happy Ling Qi has had the opportunity to learn from them.
 
Oh hey. What about that thing deep in the pools of that place on our fief?

Still waters deeping. That tracks- the waters are still, and the mermen are in the shallows.

Archivist of the vile. It seems to take things over, wearing their minds and bodies as puppets, right? That seems like collector behavior.

It's also deep enough to have connection to the ilitha, and it's relatively recent to the location.

Bit of a stretch, but it's a possibility. We don't know what that thing is or where it came from, it's just near us and we have a spirit keeping a lid on it. Like we have a bunch of beavers keeping a lid on the glacier demon.

[X] White Sky Confederation
[X] Emerald Seas Nobility
 
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God I hope it's the Meng Reactionaries, no quicker way to buff our Meng support than for the quarter of the clan that hates us to spontaneously evaporate.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I wouldn't assume that, as the other three quarters might not be happy about the situation. They are family after all.
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While I was being flippant with the implication that all of our Meng problems would be solved forever, I feel pretty confident saying that using Hui arts to sabotage CRX's personal project would not make the Meng Reactionaries popular with anyone, including the Meng Conservatives.

Close familial bonds don't really apply at the clan level, and one of the defining traits of the Conservative faction is that they don't want to invite external scrutiny/annihilation. If the Reactionaries try something this fucked, and then they have the nerve to get caught? Ling Qi isn't the one who's going to be taking the blame.
 
Using anything Hui in a way that can be tracked back to you is going to make you super unpopular among anyone who wants to not be flattened by Cai "Live and let live" Senhua.
If it is the Meng reactionaries, i suspect rest ofthe Meng will start to cut them off asap out of pure survival instinct.
 
kfrar said:
While I was being flippant with the implication that all of our Meng problems would be solved forever, I feel pretty confident saying that using Hui arts to sabotage CRX's personal project would not make the Meng Reactionaries popular with anyone, including the Meng Conservatives.

Close familial bonds don't really apply at the clan level, and one of the defining traits of the Conservative faction is that they don't want to invite external scrutiny/annihilation. If the Reactionaries try something this fucked, and then they have the nerve to get caught? Ling Qi isn't the one who's going to be taking the blame.
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Fundamentally, I think that if that situation happens, then there's lots of blame to go around and I think Ling Qi will get enough of it that it won't actually improve the feelings of the remaining Meng towards her and may even hurt her a little. I'm not saying they'd hate her or wish her huge amounts of ill, just that I don't think it'd improve things hugely in that regard.
 
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